Aviation Specials – June 2018

Celebrating a British icon 101

that cost £1,700 each; add in

around £600 for overhauling

and modernising the chassis and

Edinburgh got 60 serviceable

double-deckers for £2,550 each,

when new ones were topping

£4,000 each.

The buses were delivered

to Edinburgh over the seven

months between late 1952 and

July 1953 and went into service

on tram replacement routes.

They were an essential part of

the city fleet working front-line

duties well into the 1960s, with

the first withdrawals in 1967; the

last examples left the fleet

in 1969.

The 17 years in Edinburgh

service testified to the Guy/

Duple combination – and at least

some of the chassis already had

10 years’ London service under

their belt before they came to

Edinburgh.

True to its word, Edinburgh

sold 59 of the 60 Guys to dealers

for scrapping. The 60th bus

survived to be preserved. No.314

was interesting in several ways.

It was based on

the oldest chassis,

that of London

G77 new in June

1943, and during

its Edinburgh

existence, in

1963, it was the

only one to gain

a beefier Gardner

6LW engine, which

necessitated an

extension to the

front end.

By this time the

front ends on all

60 had changed.

The ornate Duple

front had given

way to a simpler

glassfibre Leyland-style front, in

the interests of easy replacement

in the event of accident damage.

During its subsequent 49 years

in preservation, 314 has been

re-engined with the more typical

5LW engine and its original

ornate front end has been

accurately recreated.

SBG purchases them too

Edinburgh was not the only

Scottish operator to benefit from

the sale of the London Guys.

Lives after London

LEFT: Eight of the

former London

Transport Guy

Arabs bought by

Western SMT

received Croft

bodies in 1953/54

that had first been

used to rebody

older Leyland

Titans in 1947.

DY1055 working

in Dumfries was

mounted on the

1945 chassis of the

former London

G267. JASPER PETTIE

COLLECTION

BELOW LEFT:

Alexander

rebodied 19

former London

Transport Guys for

Western SMT in

1952/53. This was

G369 in London,

new in 1945,

and as Western

Y1006 was fitted

with its new body

in 1953. It was

photographed

leaving Dumfries

for Lockerbie.

S. N. J. WHITE